Notes on reading The Faerie Queene the second time

When writing an essay, it’s common to arrange your Proof section first (that’s the body of the essay), then you work out your Conclusion, then you decide on your Introduction, including the Exordium, which is supposed to raise the reader’s interest and give him a clue as to the content of the essay.

While reading The Iliad this school year, I noticed that Book I serves as the Exordium for the whole work. The events in that book foreshadow the events of the whole story. Then I began noticing that the first few lines of each book serve as the exordium for that book. There’s a fractal pattern to the whole work.

When the kids and reread Book I of FQ last month, I suddenly realized that Cantos 2-6 foreshadow what is going to happen in Books 2-6. I also noticed that Canto 1 is an exordium for the whole of Book I, and the first few stanzas of each canto are the exordium of that canto.

Now we’re in Book II, and I’m seeing the same pattern. We just finished Canto 6, and Sir Guyon is able to disengage himself from a bad woman while maintaining a courteous demeanor. Guess what? Book VI is the story of Sir Calidore, the knight of courtesy.

Illustration by A.G. Walker in
Stories from The Faerie Queene, by Mary Macleod

This work is genius, y’all. You need to read it. More than once, too.